Kazakhstan’s most renowned journalist, Borat Sagdiyev, showed up at the Kennedy Center Honors on Sunday night to salute one of this year’s honorees, the band U2, and also make President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden squirm a little in their seats.
“I am told the President of U S and A is here,†said Borat from the stage. “Where are you, Mr. Trump?â€
Following a tidal wave of laughter that swept through the audience, Borat — actually British actor and comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, but you knew that — continued, “You don’t look so good. Where has your glorious big belly gone? And your pretty orange skin?â€
Then he turned his attention to Dr. Biden: “I see you have a new wife. Wow wow wee waa — very erotic. I must look away before I get a Bono.†Bono, seated in the center balcony alongside his fellow honorees and the Bidens, laughed at this. President Biden smiled, too, though he no doubt was thinking that Borat had just missed a perfect opportunity to use his “my wife†voice.
At this point, you might be wondering why this skilled practical joker was tapped to pay tribute to one of the world’s greatest rock bands when famous prankster George Clooney, another of this year’s Kennedy Center Honorees, was quite literally sitting right there. It’s a bit unclear, although Baron Cohen, in the guise of his fashion-journalist alter ego Brüno, did work with Bono on the charity single “Dove of Peace,†documented in the closing scene of the movie Brüno. So … there’s that.
That was apparently all the reason Baron Cohen as Borat needed to make the black-tie D.C. crowd titter uncomfortably while he expressed “concern†about the rise in antisemitic rhetoric. “I am very upset about the antisemitism in U S and A. It’s not fair! Kazakhstan is No. 1 Jew-crushing nation. Stop stealing our hobbies!†Then he briefly chanted, “Stop the steal.â€
Borat did eventually get around to paying homage to U2 — or as he called them, Me2 — by performing one of their “Irish shantys,†the song “With or Without You,†which he sang briefly before rubbing a keytar against his crotch.
“I hope you enjoy my voice, Mr. President,†Borat said before he began. “It is my wish to pleasure you with my mouth.†This is when Jill Biden put one hand on her forehead in a gesture that implied some small part of her longed to beam herself right out of the Kennedy Center Opera House. Joe just kept on smiling.
How much of any of this will actually make the Kennedy Center Honors broadcast, which airs December 28 on CBS? My guess is not much, and definitely not the part where Baron Cohen prefaced his keytar playing with, “Mr. President, to bring you to climax I use my fingers now.â€